Home > Thinking Right > Archives > 2008 > December > 19 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USBush’s ‘rescue’ of free market more of a rubout
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In many respects, the left and the right are of shared sentiment about the presidency of George W. Bush.
The left regrets Iraq and the Bush Doctrine of pre-emptive strikes against rogue states that support terrorists. For the right, it’s the policies that continued this week with Friday’s announcement of a $17.4 billion bridge loan to General Motors and Chrysler.
“Under ordinary economic circumstances, I would say this is the price that failed companies must pay,” Bush said. “And I would not favor intervening to prevent the automakers from going out of business.” But, “if we were to allow the free market to take its course now, it would almost certainly lead to disorderly bankruptcy and liquidation for the automakers. … allowing the U.S. auto industry to collapse is not a responsible course of action.”
Those remarks are consistent with his admission to CNN’s Candy Crowley this week that “I’ve abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system.”
Iraq and Afghanistan never struck me as the quagmire the left feared — and incessantly declared, jumping at every opportunity to find cataclysmic failure, as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid did last year in asserting that “… this war is lost and the surge is not accomplishing anything.” It wasn’t and, promisingly, Barack Obama’s early signals suggest that candidate Obama and President Obama may have different definitions of withdrawal of all combat troops from Iraq in 16 months.
For a president and his party, it’s far easier to favor policies that invite failure, or to declare that it happened during the other guy’s watch, than to have the world and historians know that President Obama and his party are responsible for it. President Bush is obviously guided now by the same sense of historical accountability that is likely to temper Obama on Iraq.
On Iraq, there’s never been any doubt that U.S. combat forces would leave. For the Bush Administration, that timetable was based “on success.” For Democrats, it was a fixed date. In either case, while there was no hard-and-fast exit timetable, there was general agreement that the U.S. should have an exit strategy.
With President Bush’s abandonment of free-market principles “to save the free market system,” conservatives find ourselves in the mode that liberals were and are on Iraq. Having intervened “to save the free- market system,” how do we get back out? What’s the exit strategy?
On Iraq, Democrats would have forced an exit sooner or later had Republicans not. There’s an entrenched anti-war bloc that has existed in this country since Vietnam.
But once business and government merge, as they are now doing, there is no constituency beyond gray-beard fuddy-duddies, Libertarians and a small band of fiscal conservative purists who will demand an exit strategy. Truly, there is no going back. A clean loan to the automobile companies, or better yet as Ronald D. Utt of the Heritage Foundation has suggested, an advance seven-year purchase of vehicles that would provide them about $10 billion, is far preferable to loans that come with car czars and federal rules on executive pay and perks.
I’m offended by sports and entertainment salaries and by outrageous Wall Street bonuses that suck up America’s creativity and employ it to find new ways to make money on debt. Meanwhile, some poor production worker who’s actually building a product suffers job loss because politicians and debt-mongers in the private sector thought it useful to put people in houses they couldn’t afford — and then to mix bad debt and good and sell it off.
But while offended by some marketplace practices, I don’t want politicians who are equally responsible for the economic downturn, determining what athletes, entertainers or business executives should be paid. I don’t want them making executive decisions for car companies. I don’t want them making investments in private-sector companies and then writing regulations or passing trade laws to protect that investment.
The president was right to intervene to contain the financial panic that had gripped Wall Street and the world. That panic would have decimated retirement savings for millions of working Americans.
But every step taken that abandoned free- market principles should have been one that limited future entanglement between business and government. Instead, we’re going the other way. We’re inviting politicians to find some scapegoats and then to manage businesses and industries, politicians who are incapable of designing government programs that work or of holding them accountable.
Bush has abandoned free-market principles, no question. Has he saved the free -market system? I fear just the contrary.
Permalink | Comments (49) | Post your comment | Categories: Column
Services »
Comments
By Curious Observer
December 20, 2008 8:24 AM | Link to this
What’s another 3 million jobs? Let the automakers fail so that we can have a genuine depression. In that way, some of the know-nothing, conservative “free market” big-mouths on this blog can lose their jobs too. I wonder whether they would continue their blather if they were the ones out of work. At least we know that they have zero understanding of how inter-dependent every business entity is in this economy. Businesses can’t operate without paying customers, folks.
Ultimately, this free-market, free-trade movement, if allowed to run unchecked, will drop this country’s standard of living to the level of third-world countries. That is where we are headed if we continue to pretend that we can compete with countries where workers are paid 50 cents an hour while using the same technology we have—all the while enjoying the luxury of government subsidies. As far as I’m concerned, this federal loan to GM and Chrysler is one of the things that President Bush did right.
By Thad Charris
December 20, 2008 9:55 AM | Link to this
Bush’s timetable for Iraq is based on “success”? Success is not definable. Notice how Wooten used a meaningless vague word like success to insist that the US can ever extricate itself from the Iraq occupation of doom, gloom, and kaboom.
Wooten also begins this blog today with a preposition. THus the opening sentence is so awkwardly phrased that it ruins whatever chance the rest of the piece had to be coherent, or informative, or to advance the Iraq discussionl
We aint never gonna git outta Iraq. Wooten knows it, I know it, You know it, the iraqi people know it, and bob dole knows it.
‘muff said.
Grading Wooten: C+
By Thad Charris
December 20, 2008 10:38 AM | Link to this
Grading Dusty: Dusty thinks she’s a poet. She writes occasional poetry, but persistently and perennially clobbers common sense and decorum with poetic jibberish disquised as fun loving sing song (and what a ding dong).
Then, because everyone, and I mean EVERYONE ignores her, she wants to start a fight with everyone. Nana nana na nana she wants to start a fight.
Her opinion is simple, closed minded and straight out of Reagan’s dimentia-based jingoism, where he thought he actually participated in World War 2 instead of acting in films about the war, like Hellcats of the Navy, about which he gave a speech as president, and during which he claimed to narrate an actual battle scene.
That’s Dusty: Blog-simple and delusional.
Dusty’s grade: C+
By Redneck Convert
December 20, 2008 10:46 AM | Link to this
Well, seems like there’s lots of airport delays while people that live in hellholes like New York City try to get out of town. Most of the delays are on account of all the security checks that need to take place to perteck us from the Terrorists. Me and my buddy Jim Earl was talking about it last night at Billy Bob’s and he come up with a good idea. Make all the people getting on planes fly buck-nekkid. That should take care of the problem. Course, we would need to do a check of holes first. Some people got holes so big they could hide all kind of things in them. I bet this AJC Commie and Sister Dusty could hide a antitank weapon in their’s.
Anyhow, I’m against this car co. bailout. You can’t have Free Innerprize if cos. ain’t free to go broke. We need to let a few million people get laid off so they will learn their lesson and work for less. It don’t concern me none. The booze business is the only one in the U.S. of A. that won’t never have to worry about layoffs. There’s so many drunks in this country, we can’t make enough to keep them from being thirsty. I got the safest job in the country if we can keep people like this ron from making their own.
Anyhow, it’s nice and warm outside and me and Jim Earl and Joe Bill plan to get in our best blue jeans and t-shirts and go down to Countryland Golf Club. We would be the sharpest dressed people there if Joe Bill wouldn’t wear that ratty old John Deere cap that looks like it’s been welded to his head. Have a good day everybody.
By Gator Joe
December 20, 2008 10:49 AM | Link to this
Wooten:
You have exhibited uncharacteristic lucidity in this article, and I actually agree with some of it. However,the “free market” has not existed in this country for quite some time, particularly under Republican administrations. Under the Republican “free market” system, corporations should be free to do as they wish, without consequences or requlations with regard to health and safety of workers, or the adverse impact on our environment. Unions, under their philosophy, should be eliminated or at best, hamstrung. Also, Republicans have allowed massive price fixing as in the case of the oil companies. So please don’t talk about your “free market.”
PS Thank God there is an entrenched anti-war bloc in this country, of which I am a proud member.
By Veteran Observer
December 20, 2008 10:52 AM | Link to this
Three years ago the Democrats promised CHANGE if we would just let Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid help run this country! Well we got it, as they have run our economy and way of life, which is the envy of the world, into a train wreck! Now we all know that this party historically is weak on business and economics, but Barney Frank and Christopher Dodd in charge of oversight of our financial institutions! Now we have elected an incoming president with NO experience in these matters and whose appointment to head the SEC, Mary Shapiro, was head of the self-regulating organization that was asleep while Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, etc… were cutting corners and destroying themselves! The French and other international business incompetents(see AIRBUS) are rejoicing and laughing at us as the incoming administration signals that they will lower our economic system to their level! Wake up people! The leaders in the democratic party admire the class systems in Europe which stifle creativity and destroy upward mobility! Our system rewards competence and creativity with the best and brightest rising to the top! It is not a myth that if you study hard, work hard, and use your brain you can build wealth for yourself and your employees, this does not happen anywhere else in the world! This hope is our strength and we must be careful to preserve it otherwise we will fall and become a nation that rewards by birth(see Kennedy-Schlossburg) and bureaucratic connections(see Shapiro)! Take heart America, we endured 4 years of Carter to get Reagan and we can endure 4 years of Obama to get a real leader with some economic background!
By Tom Price, I'm NOT SAXBY
December 20, 2008 11:04 AM | Link to this
Republican leaders across the board have let loose on President Bush’s auto industry bailout in what may be some of the toughest GOP criticism of the Bush presidency.
John McCain is leading the way, saying it is “unacceptable that we would leave the American taxpayer with a tab of tens of billions of dollars while failing to receive any serious concessions from the industry.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House GOP leader John Boehner and a cast of other angry fiscal conservatives have also rained criticism on the president. Bush may only have a month left in office, but Republican leaders who went along with the Wall Street bailout are finally making a clean break with their president on economic policy.
“I’m very disappointed,” said Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.). “The president justified his action with a false choice: it’s either this plan or abrupt liquidation of the companies. The White House seems to think that the industry didn’t have time to deal with the problem or prepare for an orderly bankruptcy, which is false.”
Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), one of the architects of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout, thinks Bush may be skirting the Troubled Asset Relief Program rules.
“These funds were not authorized by Congress for non-financial companies in distress,” Gregg said, “but were to be used to restore liquidity and stability in the overall financial system of the country and to help prevent fundamental systemic risks in the global marketplace.”
McConnell said he realized the Bush auto bailout was coming, and is insisting more strings be attached.
“I have strong objections to the use of Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) funds for industry specific bailouts. And I do not support this action,” McConnell said. “But since the administration has chosen to use these funds to aid the automakers, it is important that the date-specific requirements on all the stakeholders be enforced.”
“Using TARP funds to bail out failing companies is incredibly risky and poor public policy, and was not the designated intention of the program when Congress approved it,” said Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), a leading voice for House conservatives. “I fear that a devastating precedent has been set that the federal government will now be pressured to bail out every failing company in America — something that taxpayers and future generations cannot afford.”
Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) went one step further with bailout regret: “It is now clear that the creation of TARP was a rueful mistake which has failed to provide urgent market stability, yet has put our country perilously in debt for the foreseeable future.”
And Boehner, who risked a lot of political capital on the Wall Street bailout back in October, says Bush is misguided.
“By declining to take the responsible approach, Washington has failed both autoworkers and taxpayers,” Boehner said. “The use of TARP funds is also regrettable.”
Republican Senators like Kit Bond of Missouri and George Voinovich of Ohio, who both have auto industry interests in their home states, were among the backers of the bailout.
“Taxpayers can rest assured that as a condition for receiving these loans, auto companies must fundamentally restructure their operations to become competitive and profitable again,” said Bond, who tried to negotiate a Senate agreement last week but fell short within his Republican conference. Voinovich said he was “grateful the president stepped in to help thwart a disaster that would have sent our state over the cliff.”
Meanwhile, Michigan Republican Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, whose party is under fire back home, seemed to accept the Bush bailout decision as a Christmas present.
“I sincerely thank him for his decisive action in this dire time for our community and the auto industry,” McCotter said.
By The BlogFather of Scroll
December 20, 2008 11:06 AM | Link to this
Conservatism is dead….. The moral majority is dead….. Deepthroat is dead….. Sen. Craig is alive and well and so he sounded taps for the others who died, with his flag at half mast.
In 2012, vote for the Craig/Haggard ticket of More-Passionate Conservatism.
By Roy Farrelly
December 20, 2008 11:14 AM | Link to this
Sorry, I don’t have too much compassion for the Big 3 automakers and their unions. If they don’t want to take a few concessions then let them go through bankruptcy and come out stronger then before.
When I retired as a pilot from Delta Air Lines my company reorganized and came out stronger but unfortunately for me, I received only a few months of payments. I lost my entire pension.
Your unions are strong and won’t let you down, Lee Moak and ALPA didn’t lift a finger for me
By Roy F
December 20, 2008 11:16 AM | Link to this
Sorry, I don’t have too much compassion for the Big 3 automakers and their unions. If they don’t want to take a few concessions then let them go through bankruptcy and come out stronger then before.
When I retired as a pilot from Delta Air Lines my company reorganized and came out stronger but unfortunately for me, I received only a few months of payments. I lost my entire pension.
Your unions are stronger and won’t let you down, you will still have your pensions, just a little less fat.
My union and Lee Moak didn’t lift a finger to help me.
By catlady
December 20, 2008 11:17 AM | Link to this
Another evidence of the Republican “free market”: The “redneck dude“‘s mom is arrested for free market activity—drug related. Dang! We could’a had that in the White House! Ya gotta love those Republican family values!
On the bailout: I love how the UAW is ASKED to do certain things. I hope the US taxpayers, who are supposed to be first in line in March when this thing goes down the drain, actually come ahead of EVERYTHING else, like they say, including the bonuses given out to execs for “success”. The only way to shut off the spigot is not to give a cent more in March if the requirements are truly NOT FULLY MET. There are short-term consequences, but the long term ones are even more important.
And regarding the $700B: half is gone in 3 months. (faster than my daughter!) Doesn’t bode too well, especially since things are only getting worse, the banks are still not lending, etc. We may have “helped” them, but it sure hasn’t helped US.
By catlady
December 20, 2008 11:37 AM | Link to this
One other thing: How did the automakers not anticipate this? Do they not employ accountants who can tell them how they are doing financially? The slowdown did not just happen in the last 6 weeks! Don’t they have the ability to plan ahead?
By Greedy Union
December 20, 2008 11:37 AM | Link to this
The union thug bosses shower the dumbocrats with millions in payoffs. Let the greedy unions suffer like the greedy ex Eastern Airlines members who crashed their own company. Just wish it would happen to Boeing Unions also who were dumb and greedy enough to strike a month ago. Now Boeing is months behind in production.
According to Forbes: Labor cost per hour, wages and benefits for hourly workers.
Ford: $70.51 ($141,020 per year)
GM: $73.26 ($146,520 per year)
Chrysler: $75.86 ($151,720 per year)
Toyota, Honda, Nissan (in U.S.): $48.00 ($96,000 per year)
According to AAUP and IES, the average annual compensation for a college professor in 2006 was $92,973 (average salary nationally of $73,207 + 27% benefits).
Bottom Line: The average UAW worker with a high school degree earns 57.6% more compensation than the average university professor with a Ph.D., and 52.6% more than the average worker at Toyota, Honda or Nissan.
Many industry analysts say the Detroit Three, must be on par with Toyota and Honda to survive. This year’s contract, they say, must be “transformational” in reducing pension and health care costs.
What would “transformational” mean? One way to think about “transformational” would mean that UAW workers, most with a high school diploma, would have to accept compensation equal to that of the average university professor with a PhD.
Then there’s the “Job Bank”
When a D3 (Detroit 3 carmaker) lays an employee off, that employee continues to receive all benefits - medical, retirement, etc., etc., PLUS an hourly wage of $31/hour.
Here’s a typical story….
Ken Pool is making good money. On weekdays, he shows up at 7 a.m. at Ford Motor Co.’s Michigan Truck Plant in Wayne, signs in, and then starts working — on a crossword puzzle. Pool hates the monotony, but the pay is good: more than $31 an hour, plus benefits.
“We just go in and play crossword puzzles, watch videos that someone brings in or read the newspaper,” he says. “Otherwise, I just sit.”
Pool is one of more than 12,000 American autoworkers who, instead of installing windshields or bending sheet metal, spend their days counting the hours in a jobs bank set up by Detroit automakers as demanded by the United Auto Workers Union - UAW - as part of an extraordinary job security agreement.
Now the D3 wants Joe Taxpayer to pick up this tab in a $25 Billion bailout package - soon to be increased to $45 Billion if Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton have their way.
The “Big 3” want this money - not to build better autos. No. They want it to pay the tab for Medical and Retirement benefits for RETIRED auto workers. Not ONE PENNY would be used to make them more competitive, or to improve the quality of their cars.
We ALL have problems paying for our Medical Insurance - but the Democrat leaders in Congress now want us to pay the Medical Insurance premiums of folks who have RETIRED from Ford, GM and Chrysler.
Not a good deal for us.
How about Chapter 11 - and getting rid of these ridiculous union contracts
By The BlogFather of Scroll
December 20, 2008 12:26 PM | Link to this
CNN just reported that a Cleveland area woman has received the world’s first near total facial transplant.
In a related story, a horse was found wandering around Cleveland without a face yesterday……..
By get out much?
December 20, 2008 12:31 PM | Link to this
Hey Greedy Union - I guess you did not know that Toyota, Honda and Nissan also have job banks (gee, I wonder which union negotiated those). Fact is, while they may only have a high school education, those line workers in automobile plants do have specialized skills and training. The manufacturers have found that it is cheaper to pay an idle worker than to fire them during a lull in production only to have to rehire and retrain replacements when production picks back up.
In addition to union contracts, contracts with dealers and suppliers are also subject to renegotiation, in case you did not know.
Then again, Forbes, Hannity or Rush and knuckle draggers like you are only interested in taking out the UAW, regardless of collateral damage.
By Ga Values
December 20, 2008 12:32 PM | Link to this
Redneck Convert 10:46 AM
Did you deliver the Bud to the Pink Pony South Thursday?? I thought it was you & I wanted to buy you a cold 1. 2 Of my country friends & I went there to check out your let passengers fly nude idea and although it might save time, the girls at the Pink Pony look better with rather than without. It is hard to miagine your buddy Dusty or your wife flying nude.
As for the war it’s hard to see what the Billions spent & the thousands killed have really improver the US safety. Too bad Saxby did not take the time to read the $700 Billion Bailout bill but he did end up with $2,500,000 out of the deal. Although I was opposed to both bailouts, it will be good to see some of the money end up in workers hands rather than as bonuses for the people who caused the mess.
By The BlogFather of Scroll
December 20, 2008 1:30 PM | Link to this
Cnn just reported that a Cleveland area woman has received the world’s first near total facial transplant.
In a related story, a faceless horse was found wandering the Cleveland area yesterday…….
By The BlogFather of Scroll
December 20, 2008 1:47 PM | Link to this
I think Wooten’s piece deserves another look. He defined, “Bush Doctrine”.
He defined, “Bush Doctrine”!!
Lets see if “USA” fits: Shortly before 911, the USA was harboring the 911 hijackers in their own country, and teaching them to fly and protecting their civil rights and giving them due process and everything.
So, the Bush Doctrine of “pre-emptive strikes against rogue states who harbor terrorists” exactly targets our own country, the US of A.
The Bush Doctrine is a license to war at will. It’s poppycock, and evil, and BUsh himself is the worst criminal since Cain.
THe last eight years have undone 200 years of American goodness.
By ron
December 20, 2008 2:14 PM | Link to this
Ga.Values———It’s not fair that you bring up Redneck’s wife flying around nude.I just get that vision of lovliness out of my head for a day or so and someone puts it back in.Now I’ll also be visulizing Dusty and I’ll never get back to normal again.
The free market system in this country has degenerated down to seeing who can steal the most money.The lunacy that was wall street could not continue unchecked.Regulators that wouldn’t regulate,a Security and Exchange Commission that let Bernard Madoff run rampant,ratings houses that Were trying to guess what bundled bad mortgages were really worth.Turns out they guessed wrong.
I had a lenghty conversation with a Wall Street mogul several years back and he said then that during his time in the business,he and others like him would do a lot of shady deals in the name of profit,but there were lines they would not cross.Not so with the new breed.In his opinion there was nothing they would not do for a dollar.Turns out he was right. All ethics are gone.There is no common sense anymore.What’s going on has nothing to do with the free market,or regulating same,but rather what you have is a form of financial anarchy,the likes never see before.
By The BlogFather of Scroll
December 20, 2008 2:25 PM | Link to this
Wallstreet Schmallstreet!
By Dusty
December 20, 2008 2:59 PM | Link to this
Dear ron, 2:14
In reference to RedNeck’s Rubiyat and your ramblings…..
You were never normal to start with so don’t worry about your present condition.
By ron
December 20, 2008 3:43 PM | Link to this
Dear Dusty,——I used to think that maybe I was addicted to the naked female body until I learned that a simple unwillingness to exert self discipline isn’t the same as being addicted.I feel so much better now.
By Dusty
December 20, 2008 3:57 PM | Link to this
Dear Ron,
Glad you discovered your “unwillingness to exert self discipline” was not addiction. But I am afraid you show signs of pernicious promiscuity. So sorry!!
By The BlogFather of Scroll
December 20, 2008 4:28 PM | Link to this
CNN just reported that a Cleveland area woman received the world’s first near total facial transplant.
In a related story, a faceless horse was found yesterday wandering the streets of Cleveland……
You dont think??? OMG!!
By Dusty
December 20, 2008 5:01 PM | Link to this
BlogFather @ 4:28
PoFo, you get an F- on that one for repeating it on every AJC blog known to man and woman.
Have you no pity??
By GaLiberal
December 20, 2008 6:17 PM | Link to this
Moron Jim is again proving why the Rethuglicons are just too stupid to understand this problem. See, MJ, Bush’s poor economic policies are at the root cause. What poor policies you ask? Why, lets start with the reckless and unnecessary Iraq war. We are bleeding out $300+ BILLION a year and that will go on for another three years. And that doesn’t even begin to cover the costs of veterans benefits and replacing equipment. Estimates are that it will cost over $2 TRILLION. Another bad idea was giving tax cuts to the uberrich. All Bush did was drive up the debt to over $10 TRILLION and leave behind a deficit over $300 BILLION. Of course, we can’t raise taxes. NO NO NO. We can’t to that. So we have other countries loan money. But that creates another problem. See, these countries want a good interest rate. But if we raise interests rates, that would tank the economy. So what does Bush do? He LOWERS interest rates. That cause the dollar to devalue causing everything priced in dollars to go up. What is priced in dollars, you ask MJ? What about oil? The falling dollar was responsible for just about all of the big run up in oil prices. Speculators were just icing on the cake. Or barrel. Hence, inflation goes up making everyone cut back on spending. Values of homes go down or people can’t make the mortgage and they get foreclosed. The banks have lots of bad loans and they go under. And on and on. But MJ and his ilk are just too stupid to grasp the concepts here. They just want to blame it on Santa Clause or the Tooth Fairy. In reality, it’s MJ and is Rethuglicon brothers that are at fault. And now everyone is going to pay.
When you vote Rethuglicon, you vote against your own best interests. And MJ’s rantings are living proof.
By The BlogFather of Scroll
December 21, 2008 8:54 AM | Link to this
Rethuglipawns are merely pawns of the thugs who did 911.
How is the shopping data for xmas 2008? Is my wife still the only one spending?
An oscar should go to Macy’s who can still keep a straight face when they hold a one day sale.
How can an entire ocean all of a sudden come to a complete stop at a beach? How is that even possible? Isn’t there some sort of mathematical probability law that would negate the concept of a beach? Wouldn’t the ocean necessarily continue on through the beach and into the continent? There! See that line? That’s the End of the Ocean….oooo
Police are still searching for the pranksters who defaced a horse in Cleveland on the same day a woman received a near total face transplant. Police suspect the eat-more-chicken cows, in some sort of misplaced species rivalry, but no arrests have been made. “I seen some crime, in my time,” remarked one officer, “buts this one’s got to me.” Veterinarians are looking for a donor match from zebras, donkeys, and a beached sea-horse.
W is already making up excuses for his blunders. His term isn’t up yet. Everyone he has been talking to must be cursing him out and complaining to him, and he can only make up talking points of resolve and reassurance.
In W’s defense is that if you take Iraq War away, then the domino fall that led to the doldrums we live in now would not have occurred. All of our current malaise can be directly linked to Iraq.
.
By ron
December 21, 2008 9:23 AM | Link to this
This morning I read that Canada has pitched in $3.29 billion to rescue Gemeral Motors up there.I beleieve they actually manufacture more GM’S up there than they do down here.
A very good piece on a transit tax gone wrong in the Miami Herald this morning.This is a must read.
The latest anthropological research changes the way female fidelity is viewed by scholars.Once it was reckoned that female fidelity was for food and security,has now changed to the realisation that female promiscuity is the thread that held communities together and improved the gene pool.It seems the female was an equal partner or an instigator in promiscouus behavior.and for good reasons.My research bears this out.
By Bill Shipp
December 21, 2008 10:19 AM | Link to this
For Georgia, 2008 may be a year to remember. Or forget.
► A prolonged drought finally ended, leaving in its wake a realization that many of our elected leaders had all but ignored tending to our water resources to keep apace with development. The water-use war between Georgia and Florida continued, with Florida gaining an upper hand.
► The traffic glut abated slightly as Georgians cut back on driving in the face of rising fuel prices. Traffic did not increase much, even when gasoline prices went back down.
► Public schools and universities struggled with massive budget cuts. University tuition rose to a point that a college education suddenly exceeded the financial reach of many non-scholarship students.
The University of Georgia’s usually high-caliber footballers had a so-so year but still made it to a big bowl. Public schools didn’t show much improvement, but our teachers remained among the highest paid in the South.
► State unemployment hit near-record levels. Real estate development slowed to a crawl. The number of bankruptcies and foreclosures hit their highest levels ever.
► Georgia’s festering immigration problem all but disappeared. A shortage of jobs, not punitive legislation, sent tens of thousands of migrant laborers back to their native countries.
► A Fulton County jury refused to impose the death penalty on courthouse murderer Brian Nichols, making some wonder why we maintain legal executions when the penalty is so unevenly imposed. If Nichols had been tried in almost any other county, he certainly would have been sentenced to pay the ultimate price for a killing spree that left a judge and three other people dead.
Despite all these elements, 2008 was not as gloomy as the above catalogue may indicate. There was hope of a new beginning on the horizon.
► Georgia experienced a record turnout of voters in the general election.
► Barack Obama demonstrated clearly that African Americans can rise to the highest seat of power in this democracy. Pundits, including this one, overestimated racism as a factor in the elections. Some of us forgot that a new and more tolerant generation is taking over. Historians may mark 2008 as the year the civil rights struggle of the 1950s and 1960s finally came to a close, though some mopping up remains.
► Some old-timers said they had not witnessed as much political optimism across the land since John F. Kennedy was elected president in 1960. Some Georgians compared Obama’s national triumph to Carl Sanders’ page-turning victory as governor way back in 1962. Sanders, the first governor elected by popular vote in modern times, became the model for a series of progressive chief executives through the remainder of the 20th century.
► Although a majority of Georgians voted for a Republican presidential candidate and re-elected a Republican senior senator, Democrats could take comfort in a remarkable resurgence of their voting strength.
► Gov. Sonny Perdue prepared to unveil an economic revival program to get Georgia out of the ditch, even if it adds to the state’s already highest-ever annual debt service of $1.25 billion.
► Parts of Atlanta-based state government prepared to move to other sections of the state to add new jobs and payrolls to those neglected areas. However, Atlanta itself faced a series of staggering fiscal problems just as the city prepared to elect a new mayor.
► House Speaker Glenn Richardson reportedly is taking anger management lessons. His proposed statewide sales tax plan has been trashed, possibly forever. School boards and county commissions can breathe easy for a while. They will not be replaced by state bureaucrats dictating their every move.
All things considered, 2008 could have been a better year for Georgia. Still, hope springs eternal, and sunny days must be just around the corner.
By Tony
December 21, 2008 10:22 AM | Link to this
Greedy Union:
Those ignorant line workers you speak of are people who produce a product, or did anyway, that other people buy. A college professor with a PhD produces NOTHING except maybe a lot of hot air and useless rhetoric.
The Union contracts you speak of were negotiated and signed by all three major automobile companies in good faith. Now, when times are tough and inept, just plain stupid management has screwed things up to a fare thee well, (all a line worker does is what he’s told, he has NO input in the way the company is run) we want to blame the WORKERS and not the IDIOT executives who made the bad decisions that got them into this mess. I don’t know one line worker who flies a Corporate jet to meet with Congress hat in hand asking for money. I don’t know one line worker who makes a FRACTION of what the Big Three CEO’s make, but we’ll blame them for Detroit’s collapse.
Your ignorant post is typical of you far right elitist wingnuts.
By The BlogFather of Scroll
December 21, 2008 11:33 AM | Link to this
Shipp, you year in review was so redundant that some of the observations were last year’s story.
moron.
By The BlogFather of Scroll
December 21, 2008 11:36 AM | Link to this
Shipp, you year in review was so redundant that some of the observations were last year’s story.
moron.
By Tom
December 21, 2008 12:17 PM | Link to this
In your comments and article, you still blame Obama and the Democrats for what it took Bush and the Republican congress 6 years of one veto and 400 signing statements to accomplish. Why do you still accept ignorance and incompetence as brilliant, and place the outcome at someone else’s feet? You all need to get out in the real world, just for a minute or two, and learn what has really happened. Rush, Neil, Bill, and the rest on Fox and the “Conservative News”, know that you really aren’t involved with or understand the world, but that you will follow the Piper as long as they spew hatred and blame against those that they have trained you to despise. Is your ignorance enough of a security blanket, isn’t there any curiosity left from when you were young to want to find out more? Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
By ron
December 21, 2008 12:30 PM | Link to this
Paulson’s bailout of the financial sector was more like a handout to the poor little greedy bank executives.$1.6 billion to 600 of the little darlings.That’s almost exactly half what Canada gave General Motors to bail out their car business.Congress would say something,except they’ve been busy giving themselves raises so there won’t be much said about executive compensation now.
By Bob Gates
December 21, 2008 1:49 PM | Link to this
In recent weeks, this page has called for major changes in America’s armed forces: more ground forces, less reliance on the Reserves, new equipment and training to replace cold-war weapons systems and doctrines.
.
Since 2001, basic defense spending has risen by 40 percent in real post-inflation dollars. That is not counting the huge supplemental budgets passed — with little serious review or debate — each year to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Such unquestioned largess has shielded the Pentagon from any real pressure to cut unneeded weapons systems and other wasteful expenses.
As a result, there is plenty of fat in the defense budget. Here is what we think can be cut back or canceled in order to pay for new equipment and other reforms that are truly essential to keep this country safe:
End production of the Air Force’s F-22. The F-22 was designed to ensure victory in air-to-air dogfights with the kind of futuristic fighters that the Soviet Union did not last long enough to build. The Air Force should instead rely on its version of the new high-performance F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which comes into production in 2012 and like the F-22 uses stealth technology to elude enemy radar.
Until then, it can use upgraded versions of the F-16, which can outperform anything now flown by any potential foe. The F-35 will provide a still larger margin of superiority. The net annual savings: about $3 billion.
Cancel the DDG-1000 Zumwalt class destroyer. This is a stealthy blue water combat ship designed to fight the kind of midocean battles no other nation is preparing to wage. The Navy can rely on the existing DDG-51 Arleigh Burke class destroyer, a powerful, well-armed ship that incorporates the advanced Aegis combat system for tracking and destroying multiple air, ship and submarine targets. The Navy has sharply cut back the number of Zumwalts on order from 32 to two.
Cutting the last two could save more than $3 billion a year that should be used to buy more of the littoral combat ships that are really needed. Those ships can move quickly in shallow offshore waters and provide helicopter and other close-in support for far more likely ground combat operations.
Halt production of the Virginia class sub. Ten of these unneeded attack submarines — modeled on the cold-war-era Seawolf, whose mission was to counter Soviet attack and nuclear launch submarines — have already been built. The program is little more than a public works project to keep the Newport News, Va., and Groton, Conn., naval shipyards in business.
The Navy can extend the operating lives of the existing fleet of Los Angeles class fast-attack nuclear submarines, which can capably perform all needed post-cold-war missions — from launching cruise missiles to countering China’s expanding but technologically inferior submarine fleet. Net savings: $2.5 billion.
Pull the plug on the Marine Corps’s V-22 Osprey. After 25 years of trying, this futuristic and unnecessary vertical takeoff and landing aircraft has yet to prove reliable or safe. The 80 already built are more than enough. Instead of adding 400 more, the Marine Corps should buy more of the proven H-92 and CH-53 helicopters. Net savings: $2 billion to 2.5 billion.
Halt premature deployment of missile defense. The Pentagon wants to spend roughly $9 billion on ballistic missile defense next year. That includes money to deploy additional interceptors in Alaska and build new installations in central Europe. After spending some $150 billion over the past 25 years, the Pentagon has yet to come up with a national missile defense system reliable enough to provide real security. The existing technology can be easily fooled by launching cheap metal decoys along with an incoming warhead.
We do not minimize the danger from ballistic missiles. We agree there should be continued testing and research on more feasible approaches. Since the most likely threat would come from Iran or North Korea, there should be serious discussions with the Russians about a possible joint missile defense program. (We know the system poses no threat to Russia, but it is time to take away the excuse.) A research program would cost about $5 billion annually, for a net savings of nearly $5 billion.
Negotiate deep cuts in nuclear weapons. Under the 2002 Moscow Treaty, the United States and Russia committed to reduce their strategic nuclear weapons to between 1,700 and 2,200 each by 2012. There has been no discussion of any further cuts. A successor treaty should have significantly lower limits — between 1,000 and 1,400, with a commitment to go lower.
United States Armament and DefensePresident-elect Barack Obama should also take all ballistic missiles off hair-trigger alert and commit to reducing the nation’s absurdly large stock of backup warheads. These steps will make the world safer. It will give Mr. Obama a lot more credibility to press others to rein in their nuclear ambitions.
It is hard to say just how much money would be saved with these reductions, but in the long term, the amount would certainly be considerable.
Trim the active-duty Navy and Air Force. The United States enjoys total dominance of the world’s seas and skies and will for many years to come. The Army and the Marines have proved too small for the demands of simultaneous ground wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. They are the forces most likely to be called on in future interventions against terrorist groups or to rescue failing states. Reducing the Navy by one carrier group and the Air Force by two air wings would save about $5 billion a year.
Making these cuts will not be politically easy. The services are already talking up remote future threats (most involving a hostile China armed to the teeth with submarines and space-age weapons). Military contractors invoke a different kind of threat: hundreds of thousands of layoffs in a recession-weakened economy. We are all for saving and creating jobs, but not at the cost of diverting finite defense dollars from real and pressing needs — or new programs that will create new jobs.
The cuts above could save $20 billion to $25 billion a year, which could be better used as follows:
Increase the size of the ground force. The current buildup of the Army and the Marine Corps will cost more than $100 billion over the next six years. Trimming the size of the Navy and Air Force, deferring the deployment of unready missile defenses and canceling the Osprey will pay for much of that.
Pay for the Navy’s needed littoral combat ships. These ships, which operate in shallow waters to support ground combat, cost about $600 million each. Canceling the DDG-1000 destroyer (more than $3 billion per ship) and the Virginia class submarine (more than $2 billion each) will help provide that needed money.
Resupply the National Guard and the Reserves. At the present rate for replacing weapons left behind or destroyed in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Guard will still be more than 20 percent short of what it needs in 2013. Canceling the F-22 will provide enough money to do better than that years sooner.
Some of these changes would have been made already if the Pentagon procurement system were more responsive to present needs and less captive to service and industry lobbyists. Defense Secretary Robert Gates complains about what he calls “next war-itis,” the system’s built-in preference for what might be needed in potential future wars over what is clearly needed now. Privately, most of the service chiefs concede that their budgets, which have seen little discipline since 9/11, have some margin for cuts.
Congress will need to develop a lot more realism and restraint. Lobbyists pushing costly and unneeded weapons systems find ready allies in lawmakers looking to create or protect federally financed jobs in their districts. Big contractors like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and General Dynamics have become masters at spreading those jobs around to assemble broad Congressional voting blocs. Work on the F-22 has been parceled out to subcontractors in 44 states.
Mr. Gates, who will stay on, must make reforming the procurement system a priority. The era of unlimited budgets is over, and Mr. Gates needs to make tough calls and stick to them. Congress must give more weight to the nation’s overall needs and less to parochial interests.
Fixing the Pentagon’s procurement process will require the full backing of Mr. Obama. We believe American taxpayers are eager to support changes that would make the country more secure while making more effective use of their money.
By david wayne osedach, san diego/ U.S.A.
December 21, 2008 2:10 PM | Link to this
My question: what does Bush and his cronies get out of this? High paying jobs for friends and family? Kickbacks?
He was,after all, initially against the auto bailout.
By david wayne osedach, san diego/ U.S.A.
December 21, 2008 2:12 PM | Link to this
My question: what does Bush and his cronies get out of this? High paying jobs for friends and family? Kickbacks? A deposit to offshore accounts?
He was,after all, initially against the auto bailout.
By david wayne osedach, san diego/ U.S.A.
December 21, 2008 2:12 PM | Link to this
My question: what does Bush and his cronies get out of this? High paying jobs for friends and family? Kickbacks? A deposit to offshore accounts?
He was,after all, initially against the auto bailout.
By The BlogFather of Scroll
December 21, 2008 2:28 PM | Link to this
Oh, Bob…..China Called. They want Taiwan back.
Awww, All those defense savings ruined, Mr. Gates. China’s new navy is a threat, and maybe you need to stop getting paid to blog for them and start remembering that the USA butters your bread, sir!
I dont cotton to mercenary spies, fifth column traitors, or fancy bookkeepin’ defense experts.
I love it when cost cutters cant see the forest (iraq) through the trees (defense budget).
Gates sounds like Rummy and his idiotic “transformation” army. FOr years the only word you could hear in any pentagon meeting was transformation, like it was a magic wand. Well, it wasn’t. Just like in Nam when Experts like Gates thought that we could forget dogfightin’. We we cant forget no dogfightin, and only a fool would send a plane aloft into enemy air without 8 50-calipre machine guns and bombs and missiles and everything. When you see an enemy plane, you needs to blow it clean out of the sky within 3.8 seconds or you’re toast. Everyone knows that. Ask McCain how it feels to get nailed. I was born in an airforce flightsuit, okay? If one more of you clowns mentions disarming our jets one more time I’ll…..
The only plug Gates needs to pull OUT his his buttplug.
Capiche?
word out!
‘muff said. BTW: check out chinese jets today. Then lets hear you talk about disarming our fighters. I never liked the defense secretary from his days in the CIA to now. I think he’s a bootlickin’ gold digger, and if I had my way, he’d be demoted to potatoe peeler for dan quayle.
Iraq. Iraq.
Iraq.
Iraq. I’d love to hear BOb Gate’s assessment of Iraq. Have you ever heard his measured reports? Vague predictions? uncommitted analysis? He either is afraid to stick his neck out or he’s hiding out till W is gone and then he’ll say stuff like, “I knew all along we were stuck there forever no matter what, but I didn’t wanna say nothing and lose my pension..”
Sellout. Coward! Speak up! Tell us what you really think now.
Iraq is the biggest geo-political blunder in world history. It makes immoral monsters out of us all. We invade Iraq and cause meyhem and misery for one and all, and then we go xmas shopping and say, “this is the best xmas ever!”
It’s goes beyond pathetic and slips into the unexplored depths in the bowels of dispicably blithe savagery unseen since the dinosaurs. We make evil like Bees make Honey.
It wont take Bush long to write a book recanting the entire Iraq invasion. He’ll blame Cheney. Watch.
What is the largest number in the world? Infinity? No. Infinity plus one? no.
The largest number is the number of different missions W defined for our army in Iraq. Remember the greatest utterance of self delusion ever made by a president: “Iraq will be an ally in the war on terror, and will be self sustaining, and able to defend itself, and be a viable country.”
Iraq will split into three or four pieces with or without us there. Iraq is about to erupt in ways W couldn’t imagine. We were fighting on the wrong side in Iraq, so we bribed the bad guys who became the good guys, but the good guys who got elected are now the bad guys who hate us and want us out, and then there’s the Iranian faction in Iraq, the ground-roots campaign for a shia superstate. (a phrase I coined, btw).
I love how nobody mentions iraq no more. It is the number one crisis confronting us, and as we go broke and are forced to foreclose on our adventure in Iraq, we will set loose the devil’s tail and the convolusions of chaos that ensue will likely drown the world.
By The BlogFather of Scroll
December 21, 2008 2:34 PM | Link to this
I meant der verlde
By Jackie
December 21, 2008 2:49 PM | Link to this
Dubya has brought grief and havoc to our country!
Those that continue to support him and his policies because of the conservative label either have not been paying attention, or, the financial, constitutional and legal tsunamis have overwhelmed those supporters to the extent they are disoriented and confused.
By The BlogFather of Scroll
December 21, 2008 2:56 PM | Link to this
Bush is a very little man. Cheney is our worst vice president. I think we need to stand up to him now as a nation and force him to relinquish all his VP Papers which probably have enough evidence in them to convict him to jail for 100 years.
I cant think about Cheney. I get too angry. How dare he drag this country throught the mud like that? A bio of Cheney, if it were all truth, would expose him as our Stalin. I know it’s so.
By The BlogFather of Scroll
December 21, 2008 3:50 PM | Link to this
the truth about this auto bailout is that it wont save them. It’s not near enough. They need hundreds of billions.
We’re going down, folks, and these bailouts are the rich people way of robbing us all. They dont pull guns on you like pirates, they simply legislate thievery.
So this is what Marx was talking about. This is what he meant, and this was his motivation. Man is corrupt. Man is a thief. Man is a coward.
We are going down, and there’s nothing that can save us. Not even a war.
By The BlogFather of Scroll
December 21, 2008 4:41 PM | Link to this
My tv is on the fritz. Please blog updates on the falcon game.
anyone, even doostier
By catlady
December 21, 2008 5:41 PM | Link to this
Some of you laid off autoworkers could use your time to mentor and tutor some of the kids at school who are so far behind. Only requirements are to pass a background check and show very basic literacy skills.
By get out much?
December 21, 2008 5:44 PM | Link to this
blogfather 17 - 7 falcons ahead a the half.
By DLink
December 22, 2008 8:49 AM | Link to this
The presidential historian of the depression era circa 1929 was on Jay Leno Friday night and put in a solid vote in favor of the automaker bail-out.
You know what? I’m going to just be Laissez-faire on this one. When history speaks, it’s just good policy to listen well. And I’m a good listener.
By DLink
December 22, 2008 9:13 AM | Link to this
As this discussion devolves into the Falcons and a playoff opportunity for the big game…
The commercial with the Clydesdales and snowballs was seriously da bomb. I mean, really, everyone in the house rolling. Superbowl material there, Kudos!
By SaveOurRepublic
December 22, 2008 10:16 AM | Link to this
Curious Observer @ 8:24 AM - Regarding your statements…”this free-market, free-trade movement, if allowed to run unchecked, will drop this country’s standard of living to the level of third-world countries”. This is exactly what it’s (truly) intended to do…destablize our economy, decimate the middle class to ultimately eliminate U.S. sovereignty & implement the North American Union (SPP/NAU). The Elite must first downgrade us to 3rd world nation status (via this intentional financial crisis) to further enact their agenda. It’s a means to an end for the Power$ that Be.
The BlogFather of Scroll @ 8:54 AM - To clarify where you state “Rethuglipawns are merely pawns of the thugs who did 911“….it was the puppet Neocons (at the top) who utilized their BlackOps resources to execute that massive false-flag op (with the “greenlight” from their Globalist Elite ma$ters). 9/11 was totally leveraged as a pretext for Middle East “empire building” and an Orwellian police state domestically (via unConstitutional legislation like the Military Commissions, (so-called) Patriot & John Warner Defense Authorization Acts). Throughout history, nations have used false-flag attacks (& addendum propaganda) to achieve various “gains” with Machiavellian reasoning & “justification”.
http://www.seeloosechange.com